A variety of electric hot air blower devices are known for the drying of hands and for the drying, shaping and styling of hair. Such devices, whether portable or not, commonly contain fans, heater elements and conduit means which permit the direction of air flow through the fans, over the heater elements and through an outlet in a selected direction. In the specific application to which the present invention primarily pertains, a wall mounted hair dryer base unit is connected at its outlet to a handle by a flexible plastic hose which serves as a transmission member for heated air exiting the base unit outlet downstream of the heater element. The operator of this device grasps and aims the handle to focus the heated air exiting therefrom as desired for hair drying or styling purposes.
Typically, in such wall mounted hair dryer units, the inlet air is forced through a heater element which is of the electrically resistive type. The heater element is comprised of a number of resistance elements extending across the inner circumference of the outlet air flow conduit. The heating of the air is accomplished by convection as the air passes across the resistance elements.
The air emerges from the conduit, downstream of the heater element, at temperatures reaching into the vicinity of 140.degree. Centigrade. This high temperature air must then travel through the transmission member, such as the flexible plastic hose, to the handle. Use of a hose with a handle at the end allows the user better control of the direction of the outlet air to particular areas of wet hair and assists the drying and/or styling process.
Heretofore, the temperature of the air exiting the dryer's heater element has caused damage to certain dryer parts or has required special high temperature materials at the interface of the heated air supplying conduit and the transmission hose. Such high temperature materials usually cost more than the materials typically utilized in the conduit and hose elements.
As a result of the high temperature of the air exiting the outlet conduit, and because of the fire safety and cost considerations relating thereto, there has existed a need for an improved apparatus for safely and reliably attaching a transmission hose to a base heater unit.
The hair dryer of the present invention avoids the foregoing shortcomings and fulfills the desired objectives by isolating the heater element within the heated air supplying conduit and allowing cooler air to pass along the outside of the heater element, thereby creating an inner circumference of heated and separated from the conduit by an outer circumference of cooler air.